Today is Kellogg’s commencement ceremony. Hundreds of students will shortly walk across the stage and receive their degrees. I’m here at Ryan Field in Evanston getting ready to march in with the faculty. The graduates will then celebrate. And in the coming weeks they will begin their careers as business leaders. It is a time […]

This week HomeMade Pizza abruptly shut down. The Chicago-based company sold fresh pizzas through retail outlets. People stopped by the store, picked up a fresh pizza and then baked it at home. My wife loved the product so we had it a lot. The pizza was delicious; the cheese bubbled in a highly satisfying manner […]

Brayden King, one of my colleagues at Kellogg, is in the news this week with a new study about baseball. It is a fascinating bit of research and highlights why brands matter so much. King worked with Jerry Kim from Columbia Business School on the study. They looked at umpire accuracy, comparing the umpire’s call […]

This week rapper Jay Z is dealing with some difficult branding challenges. Later this month Barneys will start selling a new line of products designed by Jay Z. The collection includes a watch, raincoat, shirts and other expensive items. Last week, however, two people accused Barneys of racial profiling. The stories hit the front page and received a […]

Yesterday I spoke at the Kellogg School of Management Commencement Ceremony; it is tradition for the winner of the L.G. Lavengood Professor of the Year Award to address the graduates. Here are my remarks. * * * Thank you so much for this award. I’d like to share with you one of my secrets to […]

Tomorrow more than 500 students will graduate from Kellogg. Many of them are my students; I’ve had the joy of teaching almost half of the group in my marketing strategy and biomedical marketing courses. I’ll be at the ceremony but I won’t be addressing the students tomorrow; I was a finalist for professor the year […]

Lucy Kellaway, columnist at the Financial Times, had a terrific column in yesterday’s paper. The article has some important insights about marketing and influencing. It is also highly entertaining. I recommend you read the article. Here is the link: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ab3795b8-8ef3-11e1-ab32-00144feab49a.html#axzz1terwY5fM ***** I’ve heard from a number of people that they’d like me to do more frequent blog updates, so I’m now planning […]

Over the past few weeks, my wife and I have been bidding on a rather nifty house in Chicago. We finally reached an agreement with the sellers but at the last instant another buyer showed up with a significantly higher offer and got the house. This was a huge disappointment for me. When I look back on how […]

You can learn a lot about marketing at a 4-H market pig auction. Last week I went to the Northwest Michigan Fair, a charming, old-time county fair, complete with the corn dogs, snow cones and “The World’s Biggest Alligator.” My kids and I had a grand time inspecting farm animals and studying the newest Massey […]

I am not big into resolutions, but I think we all could benefit from this one: do not repeat Tiger’s mistakes. It is now becoming quite clear that the Tiger brand machine is coming apart and it will be a long time until it recovers. Yesterday AT&T announced that it was dropping Tiger Woods, following the lead […]

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Welcome to StrongBrands

The website of Tim Calkins - helping people use marketing strategy and branding to build strong and profitable businesses.

Tim is a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management where he teaches marketing strategy, biomedical marketing and strategic marketing decisions in the full-time, part-time and executive MBA programs. He is co-academic director of Kellogg's branding program.